Gadamer and Cusanus on Creation

The creation of the world may not seem, at first glance, to be a Gadamerian topic. Gadamer's discretion on religious matters as well as his critique of metaphysics might make us think that the philosopher from Heidelberg was more interested in a historical theory of comprehension and a secular ontology of language rather than in such ample religious and metaphysical scenarios as the creation of the world. The understanding of creation is nonetheless crucial for Gadamer, because it radically influences the way we live. Creation has therefore a wide relevance that is not limited to the question Why there is something rather than nothing? In fact, Gadamer sees in the understanding of creation the background of philosophical ideas as well as of modern mentality. The way we are and the way we experience our world today depends in large part on the way we conceive creation. In this essay I will try to show that Gadamer addresses the Christian dogma of creation by focussing on the inwardness of God in reaction to a modern reception of the Christian dogma of cratio ex nihilo that neglects the role of divine interiority in creation. The starting oint is Gadamer's interpretation of some major themes of Nicolaus Cusanus' philosophy that help Gadamer revisit a dogma endangered by modernity. In modern times, the dogma of creation was separated from the complementary dognas of the Trinity and the Incaranation; a retrieval of the original theological context allows Gadamer to go back to a genuine sense of creation and to work out the philosophical relevance of some theological figures that are not usually considered by philosophy. I will also argue that this treatment is congruent with Gadamer's interpretation of verbum interius in the third part of Truth and Method, and that this significant continuity emphasizes the relevance of both references: to Cusanus, as well as to the founders of the tradition of inner word, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Gadamer's sensitivity to medieval philosophy proves therefore to be more than a marginal excitement and to resonate with the whole of his thought. In his reading, the representation of creation encapsulated in the tradition of verbum interius is fulfilled by Cusanus's terminological innovation complicatio-explicatio. The inwardness of the divine spirit is the leitmotiv of this development and constitutes Gadamer's main concern. The idea of a creation based not on an external and blind causality but rather on the fecund inwardness of the divine spirit represents a precious resource of Christianity that can bear fruit against the current mentality characterized by a degeneration of creation in sterile productivity. Moreover, this idea helps Gadamer reformulate speculative and metaphysical problems in a mode different from the onto-theological one. The validity of these problems remains untouched by the Heideggerian critique of metaphysics, as his discussion on Augustine, Thomas, and Cusanus is able to show; Gadamer's involvement in the metaphysical realm is not a minor moment in his thought, but rather a discrete rearticulating of major questions in this area.1 Gadamer's interest in Nicolaus Cusanus has also a formal expression: he was director of the Cusanus-Kommission of Heidelberger Akademie and edited Cusanus's works for this academy. In his capacity as editor, Gadamer underlined that a great part of Cusanus's legacy has still to be discovered. The reception of Cusanus in the nineteenth century was largely conditioned by the emergence of science, and less by a genuine philosophical reading. Even in the case of Neokantianism, Cusanus's thought was perceived only in its epistemological dimension. On the contrary, the strength of Cusanus's philosophy lies, according to Gadamer, in its discussion of metaphysical topics which shaped the passage from medieval to modern philosophy. Gadamer thus reacts to a Neokantian reading of Cusanus's theology as forerunner of modern natural scienees. ...

Epistemology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy